That has led the Houston Airport System and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to forge a pioneering partnership that calls for Houston airports to reimburse the federal government the anticipated multimillion-dollar cost of overtime so that more immigration and customs officers are available to process arriving passengers during peak travel times.

Across-the-board federal budget cuts have forced Customs to end the staff overtime that was being used to provide enough officers to speed the clearance of arriving passengers, Lance Lyttle, chief operating officer of the Houston Airport System, told the Houston Chronicle on Tuesday.

Slowing down

As a result, barely 60 percent of arriving passengers are clearing immigration and customs within 30 minutes of arrival in Houston, compared with more than 70 percent of passengers before the lost overtime.

Government statistics show wait times at Bush Intercontinental in July reached a maximum of 97 minutes.

Related

Lyttle said it remains "very, very difficult to quantify" the amount of locally financed overtime that will be needed to cut wait times.

"We'll have to decide what peak hours we're going to get the best bang for our buck and how many people we'll be willing to pay for during that time," Lyttle said.

The Houston Airport System plans on obtaining reimbursement for its payments to Customs from airlines that benefit from speedier processing of passengers, Lyttle said.

The arrangement being negotiated between the federal government and Houston by Dec. 31 is part of a wider pilot program designed to also cut waiting times for passengers or cargo at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport; the 11 bridges of the South Texas Assets Consortium stretching from Laredo to Rio Grande City; and the City of El Paso.

Miami-Dade County in Florida is working out a similar deal.

Kevin McAleenan, acting deputy commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said his agency is prepared to partner with local authorities "where there's a significant return on investment ... by allowing us to receive reimbursement for requested services that allow us to enhance and provide additional coverage."

By McAleenan's estimates, adding a single daily 300-passenger flight from Asia to Houston could add as much as $250 million in additional economic activity to the Houston-area economy.

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Houston Mayor Annise Parker, noting Houston's "strong presence in the global marketplace," said "we have to move our airport guests through the arrivals process as efficiently as possible."

Mario Diaz, director of aviation for the City of Houston, said officials will continue efforts to improve the arrivals process.

"These passengers are incredibly important to Houston, both economically and culturally," Diaz said in a statement. "We want them to have a positive experience in our city from the moment their plane touches the runway."

Currently, 25,252 Customs agents work at the nation's 329 air, land and sea ports of entry.

President Barack Obama's latest budget request to Congress for $12.9 billion for Customs calls for federal taxpayers to underwrite the cost of 1,600 additional officers and for local user fees such as those envisioned in Houston to cover the costs for another 1,877 officers.

Estimates suggest it will cost an average of $100 an hour to extend an officer's eight-hour shift to help meet peak demand for passenger clearance. Customs agents earn an average of $130,000 a year in salary, benefits and overtime, McAleenan said.